Gettysburg Address

November 19, 1863

At the dedication of the new national cemetary at Gettysburg, four months after the battle there, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address. The bloodiest battle of the Civil War, Gettysburg had taken 46,000 casualties between the Union and Confederacy. Lincoln honored the fallen dead and linked their sacrifice to the survival of a nation “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” “We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground,” Lincoln told the gathered crowd. “The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract,” Lincoln said. He closed his 272-word address by declaring “that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

Make Gilder Lehrman your Home for History

Already have an account?

How to subscribe

Click here to get a free subscription if you are a K-12 educator or student, and here for more information on the Affiliate School Program, which provides even more benefits.

Otherwise, click here for information on a paid subscription for those who are not K-12 educators or students.

Make Gilder Lehrman your Home for History

Become an Affiliate School to have free access to the Gilder Lehrman site and all its features.

Click here to start your Affiliate School application today! You will have free access while your application is being processed.

Individual K-12 educators and students can also get a free subscription to the site by making a site account with a school-affiliated email address. Click here to do so now!

Make Gilder Lehrman your Home for History

Why Gilder Lehrman?

Your subscription grants you access to archives of rare historical documents, lectures by top historians, and a wealth of original historical material, while also helping to support history education in schools nationwide. Click here to see the kinds of historical resources to which you'll have access and here to read more about the Institute's educational programs.

Individual subscription: $25

Click here to sign up for an individual subscription to the Gilder Lehrman site.

Make Gilder Lehrman your Home for History

Upgrade your Account

We're sorry, but it looks as though you do not have access to the full Gilder Lehrman site.

All K-12 educators receive free subscriptions to the Gilder Lehrman site, and our Affiliate School members gain even more benefits!